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by: George Richert
Posted: Nov 11, 2021 / 05:34 PM EST / Updated: Nov 11, 2021 / 09:49 PM EST BUFFALO, NY (WIVB) — A technical sergeant who serves with the 914th Air Reserve Unit in Niagara Falls has assembled a team of comrades who plan to row a small boat across the Atlantic Ocean next month to raise awareness for suicide prevention among military veterans.
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Today we talked LIVE with Evan, first about being our friend, then his deployment and how he was awarded the purple heart and finally his journey across the Atlantic ocean in 50 days in a row boat.
The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge is a 3,000 mile race that begins in San Sebastian in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain (28oN 18oW) and ends in Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua & Barbuda (17oN 61oW).
Fight or Die’s website UsVetRow.org clearly states their purpose for participating in this grueling challenge.  SAN ANTONIO -- A local veteran who rowed 3 thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean, returns to San Antonio to share his once in a lifetime journey. His team set a world record for their boat class.
John Fannin, a Judson High School graduate and infantry Marine, set out to row across the Atlantic in December. He was part of the only U.S. team to row the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. He and three other veterans traveled from La Gomera, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, to Antigua. It took them 50 days, 11 hours and 35 minutes to finish the competition. Fannin said the rowing journey was the toughest challenge of his life. He said it helped him become stronger. POWELL, Wyo. — After rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in a four-man boat, Powell resident Carl Christensen found it hard to believe it was finally over. The reality of being on dry land hadn’t set in yet.
“I don’t know where I’m at,” he said on the pier last Friday just after dark. “I think I’m in Antigua.” Yet Christensen knew what he and his team had accomplished. He stated it simply while being cheered on the podium after the historic finish: “I rowed an ocean. Thanks, everyone.” 
Sean and Dalton talk with Evan Stratton from Team Fight Oar Die 2019.
 Around the time former US Marine Evan Stratton was discovering he missed the camaraderie he’d found in the service, he attended a fundraising gala in 2018 – and his life took a new course. He heard the story of Fight Oar Die – an all-American, all-military-veteran rowing team that competes in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge annually. “I’m hearing about these four veterans who are going to get in a boat and row the Atlantic Ocean. My eyes lit up, like yes, I want to do this.”
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